ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1269 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1269 ************************************ From: "S Friedemann" 18 Oct 1998 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if would have been used as an Old Norse masculine name between 800 and 1000. Here is the information we have found. Unfortunately, does not seem to be a properly formed Old Norse name. , on its own, is not a first element used in Old Norse names, as far as we can tell. [1] Some longer first elements (protothemes) in names adopted from other cultures begin with , but the is not a separable part of the name, and we found no native Norse prototheme that begins . We suggest that you consider a different name. Below are a few Old Norse names similar to your original choice that we found: [2] Madda{dh}r Magni Magnu/s Makan Maltus Marga{dh}r Marku/s Marteinn Matheus Ma/kr Ma/ni M/ar The slash represents an accent over the previous letter, and {dh} stands for the letter , which is pronounced \th\ as in . All but the last three of these names are of either Irish or Christian origin. is an anglicized form of the name . The slash represents an accent on the , and the final <-r> is a grammatical ending, nearly silent. This is the only example we've found of the element <-tryggr>. Without other examples, we don't recommend re-using it in new combinations. The correct form of the byname (nickname) "son of Skeggi" is or . The name was used in Iceland from the earliest times. [1] would be a fine Old Norse name. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, and Lindorm Eriksson. For the Academy, --Aryanhwy merch Catmael October 18, 1998 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala & Leipzig: 1905-1915, sup. Oslo, Uppsala and Kobenhavn: 1931). [2] Fleck, G. (aka Geirr Bassi Haraldsson), _The Old Norse Name_, Studia Marklandica (series) (Olney, Maryland: Yggsalr Press, 1977).